Jean Paul Leguy with some final customers of his eponymous shopPhoto by Mitch Ridder.

Even before its doors opened, a sizeable crowd lined up outside Jean Paul’s Goodies in North Laguna last Saturday, Aug. 9, mourning the final hours of a Laguna Beach institution and commiserating over an alternate source of caffeine and camaraderie.

After 35 years and several competitors, Jean Paul Leguy turned in the key to the coffee and pastry shop where he daily brewed café au lait and baked croissants and infamously insulted customers for their unintended faux pas.

Some witnessed the removal of the shop’s sign, apparently scored by local resident Clay Berryhill. A vinyl sign with a Starbucks logo, which Jean Paul loyalists know the proprietor views as akin to the evil empire, replaced it. Leguy got in the last word. The sign read, “Probably Not Coming Soon.”

And as would be true on most days, by 11 a.m. the shop’s shelves were bare. But this time, there was no hope for a refill.